KSC-98pc309

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3), an element of the STS-92 mission scheduled for launch aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis in January 1999, arrived from the Boeing Company in Huntington Beach, Calif., for processing in KSC's Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF). While in orbit, PMA-3 will be removed from the orbiter's payload bay by the astronauts using the remote manipulator arm and mated to Node 1, a connecting passageway to the living and working areas of the International Space Station. The primary purpose of PMA-3 is to serve as a Shuttle docking port through which crew members and equipment will transfer to the International Space Station during later assembly missions